The Volturi's Side
by katieee72
Summary: Audra, a long-time member of the Volturi, is in for a surprise when Edward Cullen shows up in Volterra asking to be killed. Happens in New Moon


_Please Note: I do not own Twilight. Stephanie does, C: Please Read and Review_

I flitted around the house, unnecessarily tidying around the entrance hall and feeding room. Perhaps a better word for my home was castle. I had lived here for one thousand years but, I never before marveled at the size of it.

I made small talk with Gianna, the human, as I organized her desk and fixed the already straight painting in the walls. Priceless originals but, they didn't impress me. I had stared at the same woman's bleak face in the painting for three hundred years. After a while her frown began to annoy me.

As usual, I was bored. Heidi was out getting our quarry now but, it would take some amount of time. Sometimes I went with her but; I didn't feel like getting dressed in the appropriate attire.

Although I did not get dressed that morning I felt like it now. Vain as I was I wanted to see the humans marvel at my beauty. Perhaps I would even help Heidi and get some humans to come back for us to feast on.

On my way to the tower in which Jane, Alec and I—all clearly Aro's favorite—shared I passed Jane.

She was, of course, beautiful. The girl—yes, she, her twin, Alec, and I could still be counted as children, or at the very eldest, adolescents—had pale brown hair that was parted in the middle and came to her jaw. She was slender and graceful, but that quality belonged to vampires on the whole, not just her. She had a narrow face and pointed jaw.

She was wide-eyed in a way that made her look curious and innocent. The thought of her being innocent and sweet made me want to laugh out loud. She was anything but. Jane's full lips were pulled into a frown.

Being polite I asked her what was wrong. The sound of my own voice had me smile involuntarily. It was so lovely.

I knew, as everyone else did, that I was kept in the Volturi because of my beauty just as much as I was because of my talent. Aro was a collector and he prized nothing more then talent and beauty. Everyone here was beautiful. But, my beauty was something different although. I was the most beautiful creature in existence; Aro didn't surround himself with second-bests. I smiled at a remembered conversation I once had with Aro before Jane and Alec joined us, when he only had one favorite.

"_You, my dear, are the only one I treasure. You beauty is excruciatingly dazzling_," He had told me_._ It made me happier then he realized when he told me that _I_ was the only one he could think of this way."_Oh Aro, what will Sulpicia say when she hears you speak of me_?" He laughed and told me that Sulpicia knew his feelings. His wife understood his obsession with my beauty.

Then Jane and Alec came and he had two new young teenagers to be fixated with. It made me jealous, although I would never tell Jane that. We were not friends by any stretch of imagination but, if nothing else, we are comrades in arms.

"Oh, Audra it's nothing," Jane said, her lips puckering. Her voice was a thousandth less beautiful then mine. I knew could press for what was bothering her farther but, I didn't feel like it. I just wanted to get into Volterra. They were setting up for St. Marcus Day and I felt like watching. "Oh, alright well, you know where to find me if you want to talk." I said and began to walk up the long, spiral flight of stairs.

Jane made a sound like, "Hmp," and stormed off. Maybe I offended her. Oh well, I didn't care. I had forever to make it up to her.

I got dressed quickly in red jeans and a zebra-print camisole. I put on the Volturi's classic black cloak and put the hood up so there was a shadow that covered my face. It was a sunny day I didn't want to make a mistake. Not that Aro wouldn't forgive me but, I had a clean slate so far. Alec and certainly not Jane couldn't say the same thing. You would think after four hundred years of trying to beat them the desire to be number one in Aro's eyes would let up. It never did.

I borrowed some of Heidi's blue contacts so they would not appear so bright red. My eyes were now a pretty violet.

I passed Caius on the way out the front entrance. Marcus preferred for me to use the drains to leave but, that was barbaric. I walked past Caius, unsure of whether he would stop me or not.

He grabbed my arm with the sweetest adoration. Aro was not the only one who loved me. Every male I came across begged for me. I had relations with Aro and Caius at some point or another, along with all the male guardsmen that we've had over the past thousand years. It made me happy that Aro and, although he did not feel the need to feed my ego like Aro did, Caius still wanted me after all this time. Poor Marcus, still grieving over his dead wife, with only Chelsea keeping him here, did not see me like they did.

"Audra," he said. "Where are you off to young one?" I smiled my most stunning smiled. I was told it made the sun look like it was on low power.

"I'm headed into Volterra to watch them set up for St. Marcus Day. And Caius, I'm not much younger then you," I said. His laughter filled the room, "Yes, only a millennium or two."

I laughed with him and he let go of my arm. "Have fun my dear," he told me, still laughing. Gianna laughed with us but, it was clear she was nervous. She did not belong with our kind but, I was hoping Aro would keep her. She was nice company.

The sun hit my eyes. I watched in awe at the beauty of the star. It didn't need vampire venom to make it be striking and immortal. It just was. It made me happy.

The humans were in frenzy trying to get the square ready for St. Marcus Day. The day honors _our_ Marcus. Vampire Marcus. Because, some amount of years ago, he allegedly drove all the vampires out of Volterra. The thought made me giggle.

I watched the humans for a few hours, ignoring the burning in the back of my throat. _Relax,_ I told it, _Heidi will bring some for you soon enough._

Then, when the wind blew, a new scent filled my brain. It was clearly vampire but, it wasn't someone I knew. My thousand years as a member of the Volturi and my training kicked in. If a stranger hunted in our city it would disturb the peace we've fought to have. Felix and Demetri were on the opposite side of the city. I was the only vampire that could smell that honey scent.

I moved in like a lioness against her prey. I only caught glimpses of him at first, I tiny tuff of bronze hair, half of his perfectly symmetrical face. Then I finally caught him in full. I couldn't even think he was beautiful; I was so concentrated on making sure he didn't step outside the law.

I marched right up to him and told him to come with me. He must have known who I was. He followed me willingly.

Oh, his face! He looked like he was being burned alive! His eyes were half crazed and half determined. I wondered what on Earth could produce such a horrible face.

Sometimes about the burning boy's eye color were different than what I was used to but, not completely unfamiliar. Carlisle Cullen, who stayed with us so long ago, had the same butterscotch eyes. Perhaps, like Carlisle, the boy hunted animals.

Halfway to my home he told me his name was Edward Cullen and he needed to see Aro, Caius and Marcus right away. Ah, he was part of Carlisle's coven. I had heard that it grew quite large.

"Alright, they are home," I told him as we walked up the steps leading to the house.

"Gianna, tell Aro, Caius and Marcus that one of Carlisle's companions are here to see them," I told her. She hurried off to find them.

I led him to the feeding room. Alec and Jane joined us while we were waiting. Alec and I made small talk while Jane eyed Edward.

Aro came in first, happy like always. "Edward, to what do we owe this honor?" Aro asked, walked over and extending his hand. Aro always treated fellow vampires as if they were old friends, dropping in to saw hello. "Oh, the honor is mine, Aro. I actually have a favor to ask of you," Edward said and placed his hand in Aro's.

My talent, or power if you choose to look at it that way, was mimicry. I could produce any other's talent. In that moment I was impatient and wanted to know what the tortured man wanted. I tip-toed to him and touch his back.

Suddenly, a hundred thousand images assaulted me. They were all of one girl, so obviously human, and Edward, together. Her blood was the most intoxicating thing he could ever imagine. I remembered what that had been like when it happened to me. Nothing could stop me from attacking. Also, he could not read her thoughts like he could read everyone else's.

But, there Edward and the girl—Bella—were kissing, there they were hugging, there she was talking in her sleep while he chuckled at what she said, there he was fighting with a boy-haired vampire for her life. She told him that she loved him and he told her that she was his life now.

Then, it was her eighteenth birthday. They watched Romeo and Juliet together and he told her that if she ever died then he would come to Volterra and ask for us to kill him.

The Cullens had her over for a party although, she clearly didn't want one. She was opening presents and she cut her finger. A flash of fire ran though my throat at his memory. Ouch.

Jasper, another member of his coven and the newest at their animal diet, lunged at her. She fell though some glass and cut her arm.

Jasper didn't get her but, Edward was decided. They had to leave for her to have a normal life.

He left them as soon as they moved. He didn't like hurting Carlisle and Esme, his mother for all intents and purposes, but, it was necessary. He tracked the boy-haired vampire's mate south until he lost her.

He spent the next few months living like a vampire from folklore. He stayed inside or in dark alleys during the day and came out to hunt animals at night.

One day, either today or yesterday, he got a call from his sister of sorts, Rosalie. She told him that Alice, his other "sister", had a vision that Bella jumped off a cliff and killed herself.

Edward kept his word to the dead girl. Finally, his request. "_Please Aro, please, just kill me, I can't be alive knowing Bella isn't_."

Edward raised his hand off of Aro's. Only a second had past.

"Well, Edward, you have given us quite a bit to consider," Aro said. Gianna told Edward to wait in the entrance hall for our decision. Gianna followed him out, locking the large wooden doors behind her.

After Aro explained what Edward wanted Jane let out a tiny huff. Human ears would not have picked up on it but, we certainly could. It was loud.

"What's wrong, Jane dear?" Aro asked her. Jane spoke so fast the words tripped out of her mouth, "I just think this—discussing it—is so stupid. If Edwards wants us to kill him then we should just do it. I'm thirsty and Heidi will be back soon. I don't want to waste any more time on this Cullen than I have to." Jane was always the first to tell when she thought something was a waste of time.

Aro took in what she said and asked what she wanted to do. "We should just kill him. Preferably right now—I can practically taste the blood and you know how much patience I have." None, that's how much.

Aro smiled at her impatience. She was so much like a child—revengeful, impatient, whiney. I was so happy I matured after I became a vampire instead of being in that childlike state. Forever twelve. I shuddered at the thought.

"Jane, if only we were all so quick to decide. There are other factors to consider." Jane pouted. "Like what?" Her voice was beginning to have the faintest trace of a whine. Aro hated it when she complained. I smiled.

Aro's patience was being tried. I was surprised that he hadn't sent her away or made someone shut her up. I decided to step in so Aro would still be happy enough to let the golden-eyed, burning boy not be condemned to the death he asked for.

"Jane, quit being annoying." I was the only one, except for Alec, that Aro allowed to speak to her that way. Jane's eyes widened as her fury rose. The only thing saving me was that if she ever tried to use her power on me, Aro would be furious. And we all rallied for Aro's favoritism.

"We can't kill him. Aro, you know that just as well as I do. The Cullen Coven is like a human family—built on love not comradeship. Imagine what Carlisle would do. His respect for us would be completely lost. The Cullens are large and potent. They have the power to influence others to their way of thinking. Aro, imagine, that lost of power in North America."

Aro loved power than anything in the world. I was exaggerating what would happen. Aro must have known that. Alec certainly did—you could tell by his smug smile. Carlisle was good-natured and polite. He wouldn't hold any vendetta against us.

Yet, there Aro was, thinking about what I just said with careful consideration. He looked doubtful so I said, "Plus, Aro imagine Edward and other girl, Alice, joining us—Alice with her visions and Edward being able to read everyone's thoughts. Even the Romanians would have to respect us." I could practically hear Aro's thoughts singing to me. Finally, he said we would not kill the boy.

"Audra, since you fought so hard for this boy's life you can go tell him. Tell him to give Carlisle my regards." Aro said with a dismissing wave of his hand.

As I walked into the entrance hall Alec, my mate, slipped his hand in mine. I put my head on his shoulder. He removed his hand and put it around my shoulder. He then kissed my head. I laughed while walking down the dark hall that led to the entrance.

"Alec stop it," I whispered. "Why?" He asked in between kisses. "Edward's mate just killed herself; he shouldn't be around people in love for awhile," I explained. At this Alec stopped his kissing and went back to holding my hand.

Edward was sitting on a fluffy white couch when we approached him. His face wasn't quite burning anymore, it was calm and thoughtful. "Edward, we have decided to deny your request. Please give Carlisle Aro's regards." I said quickly. No need to make it long and drawn out—he, after all, already knew. "_Mind-reader_" I thought. He faked a smile.

"C'mon Alec, let's go my room," I said, already leading him. I saw Alec wink at Edward before leaving the hallway.

_More to come, C:_


End file.
